I disagree. Lack of transparency is to the benefit of the companies, and they prefer to keep it that way. You are not going to get an honest answer from a company on a touchy subject unless it's already in their marketing/press releases. Usually customer inquiries are handled by powerless and uninformed employees who are not in the loop, and have no power to accurately answer difficult questions. This goes for negative customer experiences, as well as things like working conditions. Companies know that an individual voice is weak and the masses have trouble congregating. At the same time companies often have large marketing budgets to push either what they want people to believe or distractions.

There is also the matter of time. Companies have plenty of time and a unified goal to sell their products all day long. Meanwhile consumers have to split their attention between dozens of different and pressing tasks. Becoming a one-man consumer watchdog group is a job in and of itself. I think it's unrealistic to expect or rely on a majority of consumers becoming experts on all the products they purchase, as well supply chain logistics and day-to-day geopolitical rumblings.

Even if consumers are willfully ignorant, it still does not excuse abuses or poor practices. Your second paragraph is akin to the philosophical tree falling in a forest, "If a Chinese factory worker is abused and nobody cares, is he really being abused?". Of course he is, and consumer ignorance still does not make it alright for the company to exploit the worker.